Weather expected to set record  but don’t get used to it

Tom Green, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, said there is a chance of record highs as temperatures reach the 60s Saturday and the mid-50s Sunday throughout much of eastern Ohio.

The Tuscarawas Valley is in for a spate of unseasonably warm weather this weekend — but don’t get used to it.

Tom Green, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, said there is a chance of record highs as temperatures reach the 60s Saturday and the mid-50s Sunday throughout much of eastern Ohio.

“We normally see swings in the temperature back and forth, but not normally that high,” he said. He attributed the warm weather to a southerly flow of air coming up from the Gulf of Mexico.

New Philadelphia could see lows tonight and Saturday night around 50. Normally, highs for this time of year are in the upper 30s, Green said.

The warm spell won’t last, though.

A front is forecast to come through the area Sunday night and Monday that will cause temperatures to drop again. The forecast high for New Philadelphia on Monday will be 39, and highs throughout the rest of next week will be 35 to 40, he said.

This springlike forecast comes on the heels of a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that 2012 was the warmest year on record for the continental United States.

The average temperature was 55.3 degrees — 1.0 degree above the previous record set in 1998.

“The year consisted of the fourth warmest winter, a record warm spring, the second warmest summer, and a warmer-than-average autumn,” according to NOAA. “Although the last four months of 2012 did not bring the same unusual warmth as the first eight months of the year, the September through December temperatures were warm enough for 2012 to remain the record warmest year, by a wide margin.”

In addition, the U.S. Climate Extremes Index indicated that 2012 was the second most extreme year on record for the nation. The index, which evaluates extremes in temperature and precipitation, as well as landfalling tropical cyclones, was nearly twice the average value and second only to 1998, NOAA said.